David Reviews Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes [Janus Contemporaries Blu-Ray Review]

During the current (July 2024) 50% Off Criterion Collection sale happening at Barnes & Noble, I’ve had a few moments of feeling pleasantly encouraged to see copies of All That Breathes, a recent release from the Janus Contemporaries label, showing up in more than a few of the haul pics and TikTok clips that fill my social media feed whenever these half-off sales happen. It makes me happy to know that a fair number of my fellow Criterion enthusiasts are picking up on what I consider to be an excellent film that at one point was actually expected to be included with the spine-numbered mainline of the Criterion Collection.

Even though the movie’s recent arrival (it premiered at Sundance in January 2022), status as a documentary feature, and relative unfamiliarity to mainstream audiences makes it seem like an ideal fit for Janus Contemporaries, it didn’t take the usual route (Janus distribution for its US theatrical premiere) to land there. All That Breathes was produced by HBO, originally streamed on MAX, and had its first theatrical run thru a different distributor. Janus only picked it up after all that had occurred, but at some point along the way, Criterion decided it would be a better business decision to market the film through their lower-priced side label. I think that’s a smart move, because I’m not sure what kind of supplemental bonus features they’d be able to add to justify an extra $10 SRP. The filmmaker interview and trailer that serve as standard extras for all the Janus Contemporaries discs is plenty sufficient to provide the needed context for better understanding director Shaunak Sen’s motives and goals in putting this project together.

But let’s dispense with that insider trivia to focus on the film itself! From the Janus Films website, here’s a brief description:

As legions of birds fall from New Delhi’s darkening skies, and the city smolders with social unrest, two brothers race to save a casualty of the turbulent times: the black kite, a majestic bird of prey essential to their city’s ecosystem. Shaunak Sen’s Oscar-nominated documentary explores the connection between the kites and the brothers who devote their lives to the quixotic effort of protecting the birds, offering a mesmerizing chronicle of inter-species coexistence.

I received a review copy of the new Blu-ray shortly around the time of its released at the end of May 2024. After I finished watching it, I had a few things to say in the clip below that was posted to my TikTok account on 6/15/24.

@dee.ell.bee 10 minute review of ALL THAT BREATHES, recently released by #criterioncollection thru their #januscontemporaries line #delhi #kites #wildliferescue ♬ original sound – David Blakeslee

While I stand by everything I said in that clip, I didn’t feel at the time that I expressed as much as I could have in my little monologue, so here I am revisiting the film a few weeks later. In this clip that I recorded and posted just this morning, I add a few observations on topics that I didn’t mention in the previous video, and also posted the film’s trailer over the top of my original recording for some added visual flair.